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Chenxing Wei,1,* Jian Chen,1,* Tanveer Muhammad Anwar,2,* Lingling Huang,1 Wenjie Yang,3 Xueyan Dong,1 Qiong Chen,1 Min Yue,2,4,5 Daojun Yu1,3 1Department of Medical Laboratory, Affiliated Hangzhou First People’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, 310006, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Veterinary Medicine, Institute of Preventive Veterinary Sciences, Zhejiang University College of Animal Sciences, Hangzhou, 310058, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Medical Laboratory, The Fourth School of Clinical Medicine, Zhejiang Chinese Medical University, Hangzhou, 310053, People’s Republic of China; 4Hainan Institute, Zhejiang University, Sanya, 572025, People’s Republic of China; 5State Key Laboratory for Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases, National Medical Center for Infectious Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310003, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Min Yue; Daojun Yu, Email myue@zju.edu.cn; yudaojun98@zju.edu.cnPurpose: Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii or AB) is one of the most opportunistic, nosocomial pathogens threatening public healthcare across countries. A. baumannii has become a primary growing concern due to its exceptional ability to acquire antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to multiple antimicrobial agents which is increasingly reported and more prevalent every year. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evaluate the AMR knowledge of A. baumannii for effective clinical treatment of nosocomial infections. This study aimed to investigate the clinical distribution AMR phenotypes and genotypes, and genomic characteristics of A. baumannii isolates recovered from hospitalized patients of different clinical departments of a sentinel hospital to improve clinical practices.Methods: A total of 123 clinical isolates were recovered from hospitalized patients of different clinical departments during 2019– 2021 to analyze AMR patterns, and further subjected to whole-genome sequencing (WGS) investigations. Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST), as well as the presence of antimicrobial-resistant genes (ARGs), virulence factor genes (VFGs) and insertion sequences (ISs) were also investigated from WGS data.Results: The results highlighted that A. baumannii clinical isolates had shown a high AMR rate, particularly from the intensive care unit (ICU), towards routinely used antimicrobials, ie, β-lactams and fluoroquinolones. ST2 was the most prevalent ST in the clinical isolates, it was strongly associated to the resistance of cephalosporins and carbapenems, with blaOXA-23 and blaOXA-66 being the most frequent determinants; moreover, high carrier rate of VFGs was also observed such as all strains containing the ompA, adeF, pgaC, lpsB, and bfmR genes.Conclusion: Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates are mostly ST2 with high rates of drug resistance and carrier of virulence factors. Therefore, it requires measurements to control its transmission and infection.Keywords: Acinetobacter baumannii, antimicrobial resistance, genetic determinants, virulence factors, whole-genome sequencing

We examine the impact of strategic deviance on corporate cash holdings and find that firms with strategies that deviate from their industry peers hold more cash. This pattern can be consistent with an agency motive, a precautionary motive, or both. We show that the value of cash holdings decreases with strategic deviance and that the cash effect of strategic deviance increases with agency costs but not with financial constraints, consistent with an agency motive. Finally, we find that strategically deviant firms pay lower dividends and avoid more taxes, both of which can potentially contribute to cash holdings. We conclude that strategically deviant firms hold more cash due to an agency motive.

A novel coordination polymer, {[Cd4(Ccbp)3(dpe)4·4H2O]·(ClO4)5·4H2O} (CP 1) (Ccbp = 3-carboxy-1-(3-carboxybenzyl)pyridin-1-ium, dpe = 1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethane), was synthesized under hydrothermal conditions by a zwitterionic organic ligand and dipyridine ligand, and was fully characterized. This CP 1 with a pyridine cation basic skeleton can be used as the first potential dual-function luminescence sensing material for the selective, sensitive and recyclable sensing of acetone molecules in aqueous phase and for the quantitative detection of ultra-low temperatures of 10 to 70 K.

Firms adopting deviant strategies are generally subject to impaired legitimacy and heightened risk. Based on the legitimacy literature, we hypothesize that strategically deviant firms are motivated to engage in corporate social responsibility activities as protection from a potential legitimacy loss. Using a sample of Chinese-listed firms during the 2003–2011 period, we find that firms with deviant strategies are more likely to engage in charitable donations. In addition, the positive effect of strategic deviance on donations is alleviated when firms communicate effectively with financial analysts, and when block holders largely own these firms.

A patient was admitted to the hospital with thymoma, branchio-oto syndrome and pure red aplastic anemia. He had both Six1 and mitochondrial mutations. The Six1 gene has been linked to branchio-oto-renal spectrum disorder and malignant tumors. Additionally, mitochondrial mutations are known to cause anemia as well. To this end, we designed experiments to explore the relationship between Six1 mutations, mitochondrial function and these diseases. Whole-exome sequencing (WES) was used for gene detection, and transfected 293T cells were used for in vitro experiments. CCK-8 and flow cytometry were used to detect cell proliferation, cell cycle stage and apoptotic populations. Caspase-3 activity was used as an apoptosis indicator. The effects on mitochondria were examined by ROS and JC-1. Western blotting was used to detect the expression of Bcl-2, Bax and cleaved caspase-3. WES revealed a Six1c.374A > G point mutation in the proband and deaf members of his family, as well as, a mitochondrial mutation (ND3) in the proband. 293T cells transfected with Six1 were used as the WT group, the Six1c.374A > G transfection group was used as the MUT group, and the untransfected 293T cells were used as the NC group. A CCK-8 test found that the cell proliferation rates were reduced both in the WT group and the MUT group, and MUT group cells were found to be blocked in S-phase. Due to these findings, apoptosis was investigated. Following investigation, increased levels of ROS, caspase-3 activity and cleaved caspase-3 were detected in WT and MUT groups. Following these results, mitochondrial function was measured. The level of mitochondrial membrane potential in WT and MUT groups was decreased significantly. Western blot showed that and the Bcl-2/Bax ratio decreased. Six1c.374A > G point mutation can affect cell proliferation through increased apoptosis controlled by the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. This could be the cause of the patient's pure red cell aplasia.

Structural evolution, magnetic moment, and thermochemical and spectral properties of NdSin0/− (n = 8–20) nanoclusters were studied. Optimized structures for NdSin demonstrated that the configuration with quintet ground state prefers Nd-substituted for a Si of the most stable Sin + 1 (n = 8–11) structure to Nd-linked configuration with Si9 tricapped trigonal prism subcluster (n = 12–19). Finally, the configuration prefers to Nd-encapsulated into Si cage framework (n = 20). For anion, the evolution at the quartet state prefers Nd-linked structure for n = 8–19 (excluded 9), and prefers Nd-encapsulated structure of n = 20. The spectral information including electron affinity, vertical detachment energy, and simulated photoelectron spectroscopy were also observed. The 4f electrons of Nd atom in NdSin with n = 8–10 hardly participate in bonding, but take part in remaining neutral clusters and all anionic NdSin− clusters. The calculations of average bond energy, HOMO-LUMO gap, and chemical bonding analyses reveal that NdSi20− possesses perfect thermodynamic and ideal chemical stability, making it as the most appropriate constitutional units for novel multi-functional semiconductors.

We propose a fiber-solid hybrid amplifier system which consists of a semiconductor saturable absorber mirror (SESAM) mode-locked fiber seed with pulse width of 10.6 ps and repetition rate of 17.6 MHz, a two-stage fiber pre-amplifier and a Nd: YAG regenerative amplifier. This structure not only endures high peak power, but also reduces the influence of fiber nonlinear effects. In the regenerative amplifier, a Pockels cell made up of BBO crystal is used as the electro-optical Q switch. It can effectively amplify the fiber seed source while keeping the beam quality constant. Besides, the pulse frequency, round trip time and thermal lens effect of the regenerative amplifier are considered and the stability of the high repetition rate regenerative cavity is further improved. The system achieves average powers of 1.5, 2.5, 3.4 W at the repetition rates of 1, 3, 5 kHz, corresponding to single pulse energies of 1.5, 0.83, 0.68 mJ respectively. And the beam quality factor M2 reaches 1.5 at the output power of 3.4 W. This system will make significant contributions to many fields such as material micro-processing, laser ranging, and laser detection. To make it more systematizing and engineering, we design an engineering prototype of the fiber-solid hybrid amplifier system.

Structural evolution, magnetic moment, and thermochemical and spectral properties of NdSi

For students majored in computer science, the ability to have computational thinking is an essential skill. Facilitating computational thinking cannot only help students understand the professional knowledge and principles of computer, but also bring new ideas to addressing complex problems, therefore, many colleges and universities have carried out computer professional curriculum reform based on computational thinking. Due to the high degree of abstraction of computational thinking, traditional teaching methods will cause students to understand computational thinking only at the conceptual level, and cannot realize the flexible use of computational thinking concepts. This study takes the software engineering course as an example to explain how to integrate the concepts of computational thinking into the original courses. The goal is to enable students to understand software engineering contents problems from the perspective of problem-solving.

Objective. Since early diagnosis is very important for treating gastric cancer (GC), we aimed to detect serum small proline-rich protein2A (SPRR2A) to verify its diagnostic value for GC patients. Methods. Serum samples were collected from 200 patients with GC, 100 patients with gastritis, 40 patients with rectal cancer (RC), 50 patients with colon cancer (CC), and 100 healthy controls. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detection kit was applied to measure serum SPRR2A concentration. The correlations between serum SPRR2A and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), clinical pathological parameters of GC, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve were also analyzed. Results. The median serum SPRR2A concentration in GC patients was significantly higher than those in healthy controls and gastritis or colorectal cancer patients (P<0.001). Serum SPRR2A concentration at a cut-off value of 80.7 pg/ml yielded an AUC of 0.851, with 75.7% sensitivity and 74.5% specificity for discriminating GC patients from healthy people. The AUC for the serum SPRR2A concentration combined with the CEA concentration was 0.876, with 79.7% sensitivity and 78.7% specificity. Similarly, serum SPRR2A discriminated GC patients from gastritis patients with an AUC of 0.820, with 90.5% sensitivity and 61.7% specificity. The AUC for the serum SPRR2A concentration combined with the CEA concentration was 0.848, with 87.8% sensitivity and 68.1% specificity. The serum SPRR2A levels in GC patients were associated with lymph node metastasis and the tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) stage (P<0.05). There was an obvious difference in serum SPRR2A expression between GC patients before and after surgery (P<0.0001). Conclusion. These results suggest that serum SPRR2A can be used as an effective marker for GC.

We report on a compact, stable, all-fiberized narrow-linewidth (0.045 nm) pulsed laser source emitting laser beam with a wavelength of 266 nm, and tunable pulse width and repetition rate. The system is based on all-fiberized nanosecond amplifier architecture, which consists of Yb-doped fiber preamplifiers and a super-large-mode-area Yb-doped fiber power amplifier. The fiber amplifier with a core of 50 μm is used to raise the threshold of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect and to obtain high output power and single pulse energy. Using lithium triborate (LBO) crystal and beta-barium borate (BBO) crystal for realizing the second-harmonic generation (SHG) and fourth-harmonic generation (FHG), we achieve 17 μJ (1.73 W) and 0.66 μJ (66 mW), respectively, at wavelengths of 532 nm and 266 nm and a repetition rate of 100 kHz with pulse width of 4 ns. This source has great potential applications in fluorescence research and solar-blind ultraviolet optical communication.

Background: Increasing studies suggest that long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) are involved in carcinogenesis of human cancers and might be used as diagnostic biomarkers for cancers. Methods: A total of 301 participants were recruited in the first part of the study, including a hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) group (n = 60), liver cirrhosis (LC) group (n = 85), chronic hepatitis B (CHB) group (n = 96), and healthy subjects (n = 60). In the second part, we collected 55 HCC patients, 60 CHB patients, and 60 healthy subjects as an independent cohort to validate the ability of the experiential lncRNAs for identifying HCC from CHB. A commercial kit was used to isolate serum exosomes and total RNA. The relative levels of lnRNAs and GAPDH mRNA were measured with TaqMan PCR. Results: The results showed that the levels of ENSG00000258332.1 and LINC00635 in the HCC group were significantly higher than those in the other groups (all P < 0.05). A high ENSG00000258332.1 level in HCC was associated with portal vein tumor emboli, lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and overall survival (OS; all P < 0.05), and a high LINC00635 level was related to lymph node metastasis, TNM stage, and OS (all P < 0.05). ENSG00000258332.1 discriminated HCC from CHB, gaining an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.719 (cutoff value of 1.345); LINC00635 gained an AUC of 0.750 (cutoff value of 1.690). Furthermore, the AUC for the combination of the 2 lncRNAs and serum AFP (cutoff value of 20 μg/L) was 0.894. The abilities of the 2 lncRNAs for identifying HCC from CHB were validated by an independent cohort. Conclusions: The results suggested that the combination of serum exosomal ENSG00000258332.1, LINC00635, and AFP may be a valuable assay in diagnosis and prognosis of HCC. Impact: Our data will shed light on exosomal lncRNAs as biomarkers for HCC. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 27(6); 710–6. ©2018 AACR.

A novel red-emitting cationic iridium(III) coordination polymer using 2-(9-(2-ethylhexyl)-9H-carbazol-3-yl)benzo[d]thiazole as main ligands, 4,4′-bipyridine as bridging auxiliary ligands and Clˉ as anions was synthesized. It had high thermal stability with a thermal decomposition temperature (Td) of 345 °C and low thermal quenching with an activation energy (Ea) of 0.2760 eV, with the temperature increasing from 20 °C to 100 °C, its photoluminescent intensity decreased to 76.7%. It can be efficiently excited by blue light of GaN chips, the cold white light of GaN-based LEDs using only Y3Al5O12:Ce3+ (YAG:Ce, 7.0 wt% in silicone) as phosphors can become warmer when it was blended in. When blending concentrations were 0.1 wt% and 0.2 wt%, the cold white light became neutral white light, the correlated color temperature (CCT) decreased from 6157 K to 5240 K, then to 4043 K, the color rendering index (CRI) changed from 72.7 to 81.3, then to 78.6, the luminous efficiency (ηL) changed from 134.1 lm·w−1 to 61.9 lm·w−1, then to 46.3 lm·w−1, the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) chromaticity coordinates changed from (0.32, 0.33) to (0.34, 0.33), then to (0.38, 0.36). At 0.3 wt%, the light became warm white light, the corresponding CCT was 3475 K, CRI was 75.6, ηL was 36.9 lm·w−1, and CIE value was (0.41, 0.40). The results suggest the coordination polymer is a promising red-emitting phosphor candidate for neutral and warm white LEDs, especially for warm white LEDs.